


Cry For Help

by bafflinghaze



Category: Original Work, The Ace Hunt
Genre: Asexual Characters, Asexual Initiative Centre, Asexual Powers, Australia, Contemporary Fantasy, Dragons, Fiction, Gen, Melbourne, Serious Crack, The Ace Hunt - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-04
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-12 13:18:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4480730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bafflinghaze/pseuds/bafflinghaze
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Ace Hunt is an organisation who deem the powers that asexuals hold to be a danger, and thus seek to eliminate asexuals.</p><p>In order to combat—and sometimes just <em>survive</em> the Ace Hunt—asexuals have banded together and formed local Asexual Initiative Centres. And one of their tasks is to respond to cries for help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cry For Help

**Author's Note:**

> This little fic is based on the [Ace Problems universe](http://aceproblems.tumblr.com/glossary). It is heavily inspired by [this ask](http://aceproblems.tumblr.com/post/112082885213/the-ace-hunt-theyre-right-outside-theyre-going).

_> >> 2015-03-01 13:04 UTC+10; Asexual Initiative Centre, Melbourne, Australia offices._

Jennifer cursed as lines of text blasted across her screen.

> The Ace Hunt! They're right outside. They're going to get me. I tried to hide my dragon but they captured her. I'm so afraid... I just want to say that I love you all. You've helped me to accomplish so much, especially with my dragon. I just wish I had more time—

She quickly picked up the location of the distress signal, as well as a nearby landmark. A single finger flicked on the agents-intercom.

‘All agents in 5 K’s of Sunshine Railway Station, Melbourne north east, _get in fucking gear!_ ’

The responses came in immediately, and she shouted out the precise co-ords even as she sent the mission info to the agents’ hand devices.

> —That was the door! They're in the hallway! I can hear them outside my room—THEY'RE HERE! SOMEONE HELP—I CA— ...

Jennifer’s fingers moved and swiped across the holo-keyboard even as her co-worker replied to the call—

> We have dispatched a small team to your location but fear it may be too late. Rest in peace—

Jennifer growled. ‘Initiate diversion!’ she snapped into her headset. ‘And start the visuals!’

She dragged a hand over her holo-KB and it lifted as she stepped through to the main space. Several dragons and their humans circled the space and the visuals poured in, holograms that grew in miniature from the floor.

It looked like mundane suburbia, but as Jennifer manipulated her holo-KB to zoom into the location, the black van of the Ace Hunt was _unmistakable_.

And the sight of a dragon, held down by a group of white-dressed enemy-operatives, chilled Jennifer to the bone. 

***

_> >> 2015-03-01 13:07 UTC+10; At the location distress signal._

‘Hey!’ Lena reprimanded.

Tali tossed their bright pink hair. ‘What? I’m gonna power-flux, so go. Head in without me.’

Lena and Tali were the first on site, and hell, Lena was not drunk enough to go into the house by herself. They wanted to _save_ the asexual kid inside, not get themselves killed in the process.

Lena gave Tali a look, but there was buzz of her phone that meant that another agent was heading near. ‘Fine,’ she finally said. ‘I’m heading to the back. Don’t die!’

‘They wish!’ Tali said cheekily.

Lena quickly moved away as a pink aura started to glow around Tali, crackling in the air like lightning. Lena might have natural protections against Tali’s powers, but she wasn’t going to push its limits.

With a muttered spell, a wolf bounded out of her chest, and she followed it, cutting through other properties to avoid the Ace Hunt out front.

The first pulse of Tali’s power-flux passed through her, popping her ears. She swallowed, trying not to listen to the shouts of the Ace Hunt operatives; nor the cry of a captive dragon.

***

_> >> 2015-03-01 13:08 UTC+10; 1.3km from location of distress signal._

Michael smirked wryly as an agent passed him some cake and started to methodically eat it. Cake increased their abilities, but it also made them targets for the Ace Hunt. And in this case, that was _exactly the point_.

‘Alright there, mate?’ Ash asked, chugging down some water.

Michael flicked away some black hair from his eyes. ‘Am I ever?’ He didn’t wait for a reply, leaping into the air and morphing directly into his dragon form.

His bones ached for a moment after the transformation, before the cake kicked in, and he dragged in a breath of air and _screeched_ into the air. His dragon form was long and wingless, but that had never stopped him from propelling through the air. 

He relished the flight, pushing energy and energy to fly higher, to be as flashy as he bloody well pleased, because these were the only times he _could_. The sky was deep blue and there was not a cloud in sight, for all that it was the first day of autumn—typical Melbourne, of course. The air was warm, cooling as he climbed higher and higher, leaving a trail of gold and red behind him. 

He could almost sense it, the attentions of the Ace Hunt, dark and malicious and falsely pure.

Other agents spread around about him, some in dragon form, some riding their dragons. His tongue flickered out, and he could _taste_ the power. 

It would undoubtedly draw the Ace Hunt. The only question was whether it’ll draw them away in _time_. 

Michael screeched again and started to draw the ace-aro symbol in the sky.

***

_> >> 2015-03-01 13:09 UTC+10; At the location distress signal._

Lena vaulted over the final fence into the backyard just as another agent landed on the grass beside her.

Lena’s eyes widened. ‘Alex.’

Alex grinned and gave Lena a quick kiss. ‘Ready?’ she said, cracking her knuckles.

‘No,’ Lena shot back, but she followed Alex nonetheless.

The house was a single storey, and the back door was unlocked when Alex pushed at it.

Lena clenched her teeth at another pulse of power. The ache quickly passed, and she heard harsh voices deeper in the house.

‘Just admit it! You’re just gay,’ said one of the voices. ‘If you admit that, then we’ll let you go, sweetie.’

Lena grabbed Alex’s hands. Their powers were compatible; they were _stronger_ together, and that made Lena brave enough to advance after Alex’s lead.

‘No! _Help me!_ ’ A scream cut the air and a distinctive magic rippled out. But it was weak, even with Lena’s hypersensitivity.

‘Oi! Pick on someone your own size!’ Alex cried out. They rounded the corner.

The two white-dressed Hunters turned to them, their eyes lighting up. Between them was a teenager, tears running down their face.

‘Let the kid go!’ Alex commanded.

The Hunter with the long hair—a woman, Lena guiltily assumed—smirked. ‘Why, if it isn’t the little aces. Are you turning yourselves in for Correction?’

Lena half turned her head. Her wolf bounded in through the wall like it was nothing; and it slammed into the Hunter Number-Two. He stumbled and Lena’s wolf buried its claws into white uniform.

The other Hunter drew a knife, dragged the teenager up to the tip of their toes, and pressed the blade into their throat. ‘Play nice, now,’ she said, still smirking.

‘Shit,’ Alex muttered.

The hallway was too _small_ , too confined for their dragons.

Lena looked into the teenager’s eyes in silent apology and removed her hand from Alex’s.

‘Hunters! Terrorists sighted at ######%$#!’ crackled a voice from one of the Hunters comm-devices at their belts.

That was the distraction Lena needed to raise her hands and utter the spell that left her, and anyone around in a 5 metre radius, frozen.

Alex’s magic was compatible, though, and they had done this before; Alex was the only one who _could_ move in Lena’s freeze-field, and she did, stepping purposely forward. She pulled the Hunter’s arm away, and slowly dragged the teenager into her embrace, and stepped them back and back and—

‘They’re in here too!’ a voice thundered.

Lena gasped as a reverse amp was set off, disrupting her field. The teenager cried out as Alex dragged them faster— _away, quick!_ —from the Hunters. Lena tried to rally her wolf, but it faded away.

The Hunters pulled out identical guns.

***

_> >> 2015-03-01 13:09 UTC+10; Outside the house._

The first power-flux Tali caused made the captive dragon stir a little. The second flux jammed the damned-Hunters’ junk tech and allowed the dragon to rise up.

Tali wasn’t normally one for physical violence, but this one time, they gave themselves some lee-way, producing a nice big sparkling pink cricket bat and bashing it into the side of the black Ace Hunt van. It made a satisfying sound; they did it again.

‘Stop, you brat!’

‘Call for backup!’

Tali could see the Hunters drawing their weapons, so they power-fluxed again, stronger but shorter, jamming their devices. Their faces twisted in dark snarls and rushed towards Tali. Tali grinned and ran. They turned around to see some of the Hunt was following; Tali threw their bat to hit the van with a solid thud. 

A few of the Hunters climbed into the van, and Tali ran and let the ground swallow them up.

***

_> >> 2015-03-01 13:12 UTC+10; Above the house._

Michael flew to the location. It had felt _too_ long before the Ace Hunt reacted to their displays, and he trusted his instincts _that something was wrong_.

He saw the black van stopping in the middle of a street. He ignored it, dodged their fire, their anti-magics too far away to get him in the air.

In his vision, the other dragon was a bright, shining beacon. It battled Hunters bravely, but it was just a juvenile, really.

 _Michael_ was no baby dragon, wet behind the ears. He screeched, drawing the attention of the Hunters up to him, and he plummeted to the ground, teeth bared.

They fired. He twisted. A few bullets glanced off his scales. He didn’t care, and nor did he stop his descent. The Hunters scattered, and he swept his long body around, dragging them all to the ground. Immediately, he turned to the dragon, ripping away the last of its bonds.

Another shot; Michael bled. If he were in human form, he would have smirked, because he wasn’t one of those agents who fear using blood magic.

He nudged the other dragon roughly. It glared at him, but at his second nudge, rushed back into the house. With the kid out of the way, Michael raised his body, letting the blood come out.

_Drip, drip, drip_. 

And out of the blood emerged little transparent dragons with sharp teeth and sharp claws, and Michael gave them each a little bit of his magic and told them to _attack_. 

***

_> >> 2015-03-01 13:13 UTC+10; In the house._

Lena’s head whipped around, and she had the impression of wings and dragon claw, enough that she jumped out of the way as the creature barreled through the hallway.

She was useless here, and she stumbled back, moved to the kitchen to find something to use as a weapon. She found a frying pan, still oily, and winced when shots were fired and someone cried out. She gripped her pan harder and attempted to get back to the scene.

A rush of air prompted the arrival of the second dragon by just a millisecond. Its long body crashed and smashed through everything, and Lena suddenly feared the structural support of the place.

_Michael_. 

She dropped the pan, which was _nothing_ in comparison to Michael. She tried to flex her powers, but it was still jammed.

Lena glanced at the fight; two dragons tussling with the Hunters. Alex and the kid were both quickly heading towards Lena. She nodded to them and ran to the back door.

They all made it out in time to see Michael burst out, straight through the roof of the building. Lena leapt back as the earth shifted below her feet, and pink hair, followed by Tali, emerged from the ground.

Tali just held their hands out, and Lena took one without hesitation. Alex took a hand, with her arm still around the teenager. Tali’s magic spread around them, and they sunk into the earth. 

The ground closed over their heads just as bullets screamed through the air.

***

_> >> 2015-03-01 13:17 UTC+10; Asexual Initiative Centre, Melbourne, Australia offices._

There was an audible sigh of relief when Tali’s marker showed that they were underground and heading to safety.

‘This is not a time to be complacent,’ Jennifer said anyway. She shifted the visuals to the diversion. ‘All div-agents, retreat!’ Jennifer shifted to a different comm-line. ‘I need you to hack those Hunter lines!’

Rapidly, she sent someone to go meet up with Tali and the others, and it was just a little close-call to have Michael and the other dragon get back to headquarters safe, but it _happened_ , and _they had done it._

The dragons and the agents holding the visuals dropped it at Jennifer’s command, and she told them to go rest as she called in the their medics to tend with all those returning to the centre.

Jennifer headed down to see them; Tali, Lena, Alex and the child were all dirty, but mercifully _alive_ , and the new dragon was fading, and Jennifer got to see it return to the child’s heart. Michael was bleeding all over the floor, _again_ , but he just smirked at her when he transformed back to human.

Jennifer sighed, then quirked a smile and clapped her hands. ‘Good work, everyone!’

**Author's Note:**

> This is also posted on [tumblr here](http://bafflinghaze.tumblr.com/post/125789897518/cry-for-help-an-ace-hunt-fic).


End file.
